Art Studio at Home

Hey, great to have yo here

I'm Mareike and this is my studio space

I’m an artist and writer, trying to weave as much nature into my work as possible, as the seasons, my home on the countryside and my love for flowers and photography inspire me and influence how I view the world.

Keep reading and find out more about me below.

my story

Even though my story as a solo-entrepreneur and writer has started several years ago, my journey as an artist only emerged fairly recently in 2022. Also, I can’t tell you that I painted and wrote with lots of talent and passion since I was a child, because that wouldn’t be true. Yes, I was good in painting in school, though not so much in writing, but the minute I left school, I stopped both. 

My love for writing appeared when I was studying, led to having a blog together with a friend and never left me again. Not writing doesn’t feel good; I need to write, to get everything that’s piling up in my mind to be released somewhere and make me feel at ease. Anyway, back then I also studied Art History as a minor, but never considered becoming an artist, because that’s not a career people pursue, right? Turns out I was wrong! And I’m very glad that I did a career coaching program that brought me back to painting, as I’ve always enjoyed it.

I grew up on the countryside – on a farm to be precise – so nature has always been with me and now inspires my art and writings. I paint the landscapes around me and found on travels; I paint flowers found along the way or on my balcony. I love to highlight natures delicacy and beauty to help people (re-)connect with it and bring it into their homes.

When I write, I either blog about sustainable art, creativity and seasonal living, as I looove to dive deep into a topic, research and read until my head feels too full and then scribble everything onto a page or write nature-bound essays about what life throws at me.

My definition of perfectly, most beautiful, want to have this all day, every day.

painter

I mostly paint with oils or watercolour, as I've always dreamed to try those (and love them), but I also enjoy pencil or soft pastel. In the future, I strive to be a fully sustainable artist only using fairly sourced, natural supplies, but this journey is a long one, demanding a lot of resources, which I don't have yet. Still, transparency is also very important to me, so you will always be able to find out which supplies I used to create my art.

wildflower-enthusiast

Gardens are one of my happy places (which is one of the reasons why my favourite place to travel is Cornwall: so many estate gardens!) and since we've had a huge garden at home, flowers have always been a part of my life. Over the past few years though, I learned how many wildflowers are endangered, as they don't have a space to grow anymore and made it my mission to create at least a wildflower (and wild-bees / instects)-friendly balcony. So you will find them in my art, as it's my way of raising awareness.

writer

It all started long ago with university papers and a half-serious blogging project and now I can't imagine not writing. My writings span across various outlets, ranging from my studio blog touching on art-making, creativity, seasonal living and having a creative business, over copy writing for my own and a few other websites and writing newsletters, to writing semi-longish, nature-connected, poetic essays about the everyday life and personal observations and questions, which I share on substack. Journaling is part of my private writing practice as well.

photographer

Hobby-photographer, actually. It's a passion I've been pursuing over ten years now and most of the time my photos inspire new paintings. And guess what? I'm a nature photographer enjoying vast landscape photography, as well as macro-ish flower photography. My all-time goal: Capture the light.

introvert

Love to be alone, love to have it quiet, don't enjoy spending time or talking to strangers. It may take years until I fully open up among a friend.

nature-lover

I love being outdoors, spending time on walks, hikes, in the garden or on my balcony. Growing up on a farm with lots of animals and spending my teenage years mostly on the back of my horse, going on mini-adventures into our nearby forest, contributed tremendously to falling for all things nature. It's weaved into all parts of my life.

eco-friendly advocate

Living eco-friendly, shopping sustainably, practicing regenerative gardening (on my balcony) is very important to me and I very dearly strive to be an eco-friendly artist. But I also know it's not easy accessible, not even for me and I do compromise here and there as I know it's not all black and white.

neuro-divergent

No official diagnosis here, but wow did my life change when I learned that my way is actually not unusual. I'm forgetful, I find it hard to listen, I hyperfocus, I have issues concentrating, I'm easily bored, my mind talks all day long, I have a bazillion ideas in a day, I'm not capable of working a regular 40 hrs job, as it bores me.

Timeline

Thanks for reading this far! I was wondering if anyone still reads timelines, but as I always enjoy reading about someone elses journey, I guess some of you do to. So, below I’m sharing an overview of my rather wild and wobbly journey until today.

Even though it may feel like you’re the only one whose life in general and career path in particular is full of twists and turns, non-linear and all but straight, let me tell you I see you and hope you feel less alone. If you’re just interest in my work, I hope you enjoy this ride through the times as well.

Life, just as creativity, is full of the unexpected and the only way to tackled it is courage and curiosity.

  • 2017 - 2021

    In Spring 2017 I started to study at the Bielefeld University and in 2021 made my Bachelor in British and American Studies (major), Literature (minor) and Art History (minor).

    I loved the time: coffees dates, being in the library, listening to clever humans, not feeling strange for once, but where I'm supposed to be. Studying revealed my love for writing, especially non-scientific writing and research. For university I wrote papers about women in newspaper cartoons from 1928, the connection between the illustrations and text in "Alice Adventures in Wonderland", analysed paintings by Jan Vermeer, or wrote about the zeitgeist and style in "The Great Gatsby". Besides, I dived into Michel Foucault's work (french philosopher) and feminist critizism, as well as created a cook book from old family recipes.

    It truely made me feel like I belonged in space for the first time.

  • 2019 - 2022

    Together with a friend, I hosted the german blog pferdeSummen about equine and equestrian health, launched a shop and learned everything that a writer needs to know about blogging. Years of ups and downs, learning a LOT and establishing a writing style that felt true to me (until a major incidence in 2022). It went that far that for my Bachelor Thesis in university I recieved the comment: "Too journalistic in style". Ok, got it. I made something right I guess, though it took a while to see it like that and not as failing again.

  • 2021 - 2022

    A time of change. After a long career coaching programm (I felt like even though I had recently made my BA, I had no idea what kind of career to pursue), I finally found not one, but two jobs. At roughly the same time, me and my friend realised that we had manoeuvered our equine blog in a financially risky position whilst our time to work for it got less and less, so we decided to quit it entirely.

    Then, in Spring 2022 I started to work in a little bookstore café, to force myself to interact with more people than just my family and friends (I had spend time alone at home for over a year) and started to work as a Content Editor for a media agency, which dropped me after only two months because they had trouble paying my wage. The agency job was horrible and I was facing a huge writers block when I left, feeling like I had lost my voice and style.

    This was when I decided to only keep working in the small bookstore-café and start working on the studio business I had been dreaming of since to career coaching.

  • Winter 2022

    I launched my creative business and my first artwork collection (Summer Blossom) without any newsletter list or social following. Just me and my website. I sold zero paintings and for the first half a year after, I was writing newsletters to a handful of people, all just friends and family members.

  • 2023

    I learned oil painting from scratch (I've always dreamed about learning it since school) with just the help of a low budget course and a bit of youtube. In May I launched my next collection (Vivid Tranquility), from which I decided to keep two of four paintings because I love them so much and to honor my journey and goal to learn oil painting. Afterwards followed a postcard collection and my first ornaments for Christmas, while I started writing on substack to find my joy, voice and style in writing again.

  • 2024

    I'm still working in the bookstore-café, I quit social media because it was draining me, experienced a light burn-out over summer, changed business directions several times, released another oil paintings collection (Spring Flowers) and settled more into substack as my writing place to be.

    It's autumn now and the first time that I feel settle and grounded into my business and vision, though it's still very small. I'm back into a flow again and curious what may come next year, while I'm working on my second ornament collection.

Gallery from the studio and beyond

Not sure what to do next?

Explore the Studio

Studio Blog

Head over to the Studio Blog and read about creativity, sustainable art, seasonal living having a creative business.

TO THE BLOG
primrose oil painting minimalist spring flower

Art

Browse my shop for artworks, gifts and things that bring nature into your home.

TO THE ART

hills to heart - substack

Follow this link to my substack publication "hills to heart" and dive into nature-bound essays.

TO THE ESSAYS

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